The Moto Social is a monthly gathering of motorcycle riders. Started in Toronto back in 2013, The Moto Social has spread across the globe gathering motorcycle riders of all persuasions to hang out for one evening during the “warmer” months. Here in San Francisco, our community gathers from April through October, whereas the community in Vancouver connects from May through September. Today’s Moto Social is the season opener. I never know what to expect at the Moto Social. Sometimes my introvertedness takes over when I don’t know anybody and I feel like crawling into my shell. Other times, I feel like I know everybody there and I’m a complete extrovert. I was planning for the former, and thus I wanted to bring the wide-angle lens and just experiment. I wanted to see how this lens bends and plays with light.

I recently acquired this lens which is everything my other lenses aren’t. It’s creative.  It’s bendy.  It’s unapologetic in the liberties it takes.

What is a wide-angle lens? Let’s take a step back and understand magnification on a camera. Focal length (ala 35 mm) is the strength with which the lens can focus on an object. The higher the number, the more magnification of the lens. On a full-frame camera, 50 mm mirrors that of the human eye. Telephoto lenses with stronger magnification will come in at 70 to 200 mm. Wide-angle lenses with more breadth will be less. Popular wide-angle lenses fall between 15 and 35 mm. As a point of reference, on the iPhone, the wide-angle view is noted as “0.5” in the camera app.

Wide-angle lenses can often be very creative lenses as they easily bend and distort straight lines – turning them into curvy expressions in the photograph. People can easily look distorted if not correctly placed in the photograph. While composition is key in every photograph, it’s especially true with a wide-angle lens. Normally I try to post great photos on my blog. That isn’t this post. I want to showcase some of my learning here. There are a couple of photos I love, but I also have lots of B – roll.

I’m learning to get the hang of things as I walk around the parking lot for the first few minutes. One of the hallmarks of a wide-angle lens is its ability to over magnify things that are close up and make the background appear far away. This capability is shown in the two photographs to the right.

The photograph on the left is taken at 15 mm. Since my buddy and I are in the center, distortion across the two of us is fairly minimal. However, the background stretches out well beyond a “normal” photograph. We potentially look a little smaller than we do in real life. I certainly like the look. I could see this lens photographing people in wide open spaces.

The photograph on the right is taken at 35 mm – much closer to that 50 mm “looks like real life” lens. Over the evening, when I wanted to opt out of the wide-angle, it was easy to zoom into 35 mm and generally get by skill that I had from much longer lenses.

Both of these photographs are taken at 15 mm. The photograph on the left the wide-angle lens massively distorts the front tire and the forks. No speed triple runs on rubber that big, LOL. However, on the photograph on the right you can see some distortion in the forks, but since your eyes instantly go to the headlights and the helmet, the distortion is much more forgiving.

When I have done community events with rev Ian, their photographer always had a rule that photographs must be taken no wider than 35 mm – to help combat distortion in photographs of their vehicles. I don’t think any vehicle photographer would actually use a wide-angle lens for production automotive photography, but I definitely see the wisdom in her advice.

These two shots were totally off-the-cuff – and I really like them. The rider in the photograph remains true to form – but his motorcycle takes on the larger-than-life look and the building behind him is stretched across the background. These two are taken at 15 mm as well – fully embracing the wide-angle.

I took the photograph on the right first – and wide-angle distortion is clearly apparent in this 15 mm photograph. I like the fact that I’ve compressed a large amount of real estate into one photograph, but it looks far from normal.

The photograph on the left was taken at 23 mm, and I think I struck a fairly good balance between capturing wide and maintaining perspective. The red Ducati’s wheels are a bit larger-than-life, but the viewer’s eyes quickly wander to the row of motorcycles moving away from that detail. Call it photographer’s license, if you will. I think this photograph works.

Much like the two photographs above, the photo on the left was shot at 15 mm. A motorcycle fired up just outside of the photo on the left-hand side eliminating all of the tires in this row. I zoomed out all the way to 15 mm and just took a photo – and I think this one works because the motorcycle’s headlights draw your attention to each of the different rear wheels rather than focusing on perspective. The photo on the right is that 35 mm and while the perspective is much more “normal,” I think you lose the more open view across the parking lot with the photo on the left.

Surprisingly, at this Moto Social, I knew people! It’s always good to hang with people on bikes from around the Bay. One of the things I appreciate about the Moto Social is that it brings motorcyclists from all around the Bay. I see people from my former life down south, the city, and in my current home in the East Bay.

I was starting to run out of daylight and without a flash, that meant I was running out of time. The photograph on the left was a full 35 mm. I quickly caught him riding out. I think the lens flare of the headlights on the right side of the photograph works. The two photographs on the right side are at 15 mm. I do think the bottom photo where the camera is a bit lower is the winner – even though the headlights across the parking lot add depth to the photograph. This is the kind of learning I need to do. Just take different kinds of photos to see how the lens responds in different kinds of circumstances.

With wide-angle lenses, I’m finding that even small movements can dramatically shift how the lens builds a photograph.

Soon it was time to head back home. ISO at 12800 and motion blur quickly set in without good sunlight or a tripod. I captured a few last quick photographs before packing up and heading home.

Thank you to the organizers of The Moto Social in San Francisco and Scuderia. It was a fantastic season opener and I’m looking forward to bringing the SLR to future events – maybe even the wide-angle lens again!